The battle front moved. They took over Aiden's compounds without much resistance as very few wolves were left. They had all retreated. It only took a matter of days before they were once more toe to toe with the enemy forces. They didn't delay. Every available male and female fighter was present. The mustang herd that had previously come to their aid and stood ready in hybrid form, wielding bows and swords. Raph learned that they were the reason for the myth of centaurs as their hybrid form gave them the lower body of a horse connected to a torso of a human. Who knew?
Melody stood with Raph and Gabby in the midst of a small battalion of Cougars. They were also ready to fight. Raph looked around and hoped they could get Aiden. He hoped that this would be the last battle. When the order was called, everyone marched forward. A deep humming began to fill the air as a battle song was started. There were no words, just the throaty humming punctured with methodical cries and huffs. The resulting music was haunting and Raph knew Aiden would hear it and know they were coming for him.
The army went miles into the wood before enemy ranks came barreling through the trees at them. There was a mighty roaring and then the whole line devolved into utter chaos as groups split off. Gabby's talons flashed and twirled. Aiden hadn't come yet and she would do what physical damage she could before her mind was needed. Together, the Storm Pack destroyed any and all enemies of their pack, the allied forces holding their ground easily against the less skilled opponents. More and more plowed in and the body count grew higher. Gabby would remember what happened next for the rest of her life. Her pack was spread out over a small area, fighting for all they were worth. They were ready to end this and so was she. The battle was long and furious and Gabby thought they would surely die of exhaustion before the never ending tide of wolves was stopped. It was then, when her fatigued muscles began failing her, and her allies were being struck down around her that she felt it. In the midst of her hopelessness, the presence of Riley. Hope flared in her again as lightning crackled through the air. The Triplets had come.
The cry went up and the allied forces rallied around the royalty of their world. The three tall wolves waded forward in the sea of enemies, killing as they went. Soon, the entire enemy army was in a panic. It was then that Aiden decided to make his appearance. Desperation pushed him and he reached out, freezing the two brothers but finding Riley's mind out of reach. He sent his best betas wading into the fray. He needed the triplets dead if he were going to make it out of this. Gabby tried to breach Aiden's mind to stop him from blocking them but his focus was too strong. She could feel his desperation fueling his concentration. She needed to get to him, to break his hold on the triplets. Riley was an impressive fighter but she couldn't take on all of those wolves alone. Doing the only thing she could think of, she drove forward, heading straight for a much less protected Aiden. She immediately tangled up with a beta guard but she used her mind to disable him and then her claws to disembowel him. With Aiden's attention elsewhere, she was able to use her abilities to full effect until Aiden noticed and switched his attention, driving sharply into her mind. This allowed Frankie and Wayne to rejoin the fray with Riley which forced Aiden to switch his focus again. Just as she reached for her powers, Aiden was somehow able to split his powers between the two enemies he faced. She couldn't break through. She was too tired and he was too focused. Raph came to her aid and he and one of the larger guard betas tumbled off in a deadly brawl. Gabby beat relentlessly on Aiden's focus and to her surprise and delight, it started to give.
"Do something." She herd him bark as she again thrust her mind at his. She was tearing through yet another soldier, trying to get to Aiden when she heard a familiar scream of agony and her blood ran cold. Her head whipped round and her heart stopped. Gracie was impaled on the talons of Val the Destroyer. His hand ripped down, spilling out her intestines and spattering the ground with her blood.
"NOOOOOOO!" The howl ripped from her throat but her movements felt slow and clumsy as time slowed and all sound ceased to exist. She felt she lived that desperate and devastating moment for a lifetime before the sound returned and her momentum felt normal. She was speeding toward them but a massive hybrid blindsided the manically smiling Val, forcing him to drop his victim and fight the seven and a half feet of snarling rage that was busy tearing flesh from his bones. The shock of the fall had driven Gracie to shift human and Gabby herself changed as she skidded to a halt on her knees, hovering over her sister's broken body.
"No, no, no, no." She said. "Ronnie!" She mentally cried for help. Her sister wasn't breathing though her eye were wide with panic. Saffron shoved her She-Alpha out of the way, working quickly. Gracie's diaphragm had been cut open. She stitched the cut and Gabby licked at it furiously. Between Gracie's own healing powers and the saliva, the diaphragm patched enough to function again. Saffron unceremoniously jabbed a knife between her ribs and inserted a bit of large tubing, letting out the air that had been keeping Gracie's lungs from working. She gasped a breath in but coughed hard. Gabby shifted human and stared in shock as blood erupted from her mouth. The bastard had damaged her lungs and Gabby knew that her sister would die drowning in her own fluids before her body could repair itself.
As Gracie convulsed, coughing up more blood, Gabby slid behind her, cradling her dying body. She entered her sisters mind and cut off all sensation. As the cold crept up her skin, she stilled. She didn't feel the burning for air or the wet blood rattling in her throat. All she felt was Gabby's mind in hers. She felt her sister's grief and she knew she could not be saved. Fear came, and then peace. If she had to go, she wanted it to be this way, fighting for her family's freedom.
"Don't cry." The week voice came through her bond. The soft attempt at comfort made Gabby sob all the harder. "It was worth it. It will always be worth it. You fight him Gabby. You fight him til he's dead and then you live. Do you hear me?" Gabby started rocking her sister's twitching body. "Dammit, Gabby. You live every day like it's your last and you have babies and grow our pack. Promise me!"
"I promise!" She cried in her sister's mind the unbearable grief bowing her body.
Gracie's bond was weakening. "I love you, Gabby." Her voice whispered through her mind.
"I love you too, Punty." Gabby whispered back, using their father's pet name for her. It hadn't been used since he had died.. There was a flash of peace and then the bond faded to nothing and the body in Gabby's arms went still.
Gone. Her sister was gone. Despair rose in her, mixed with rage and a wild and unstoppable power. It rose and rose until she needed to let it out. She threw her head back and let out a cry so desolate and full of hate and loss that people nearby cringed. As she loosed her cry, a blast of power shot out of her, extinguishing every single bond within a ten mile radius. For a full minute, every single wolf in that radius was alone for the first time since birth. The enemy forces fled, their numbers greatly reduced by the battle. Gabby, however, didn't care. She gathered her sister's dead body in her arms, crying her grief to the clear, sunny sky over and over again. She screamed until her voice was horse, until her body ached, until her head pounded and no more tears would come. All she could feel inside of her was the absence of her family bond with her sister, her only remaining sibling.
"Gabby, let us in." Came a voice in her mind. She looked up and saw her pack there in a perfect circle around her. Raph's hand looked like it was resting on something but it was hanging in thin air. That's when Gabby noticed she was still channeling power through her. She cut it off and Raph's hand fell through whatever it had been resting on. No one moved, sensing the wounded and fragile nature of their She-Alpha. Somewhere out of sight she could hear her mother sobbing and she whimpered, wanting to go to her but not wanting to leave her sister's side. Raph approached slowly, crouched and practically on his knees. Gabby noticed his eyes swam with tears and the blood and grime had already washed away where those tears had fallen.
"I'll stay." Raph said, his voice thick with loss. He gently raised Gracie's body and rested it across his lap, cradling her like he would a baby. "Go to your mother." He urged her and she listened. The pack parted for her, revealing her mother being held in the arms of her best friend. As soon as she saw Gabby, she reached out, grabbing her and yanking her close, sobbing into her hair. Gabby opened her bond to her mother and together they shared the grief that was sharp enough to leave them breathless.
Leo watched as the smoke rose into the air. Gracie's body burned in a raging inferno in a special ceremony, separate from the funeral of the six other pack members they had burned that day. He felt numb. Their baby sister was gone. Mikey was inconsolable, so much so that he couldn't even express himself which was rare for the usually open turtle. He stood next to Leo, his face blank, watching the smoke rise. He hadn't shed a tear, hadn't emitted a sound since her death. Leo watched Melody as her cat eyes settled unmoving on his younger brother. Quietly she moved over and slipped a hand in his, holding tight. Leo watched as a single tear rolled down his brothers cheek. It was a start. Leo looked over to where two pairs of mothers and daughters clung to each other. Their faces were ragged but dry. They had no tears left. Their pain was too much. He used his bond to reach out to Gabby, the only person he had ever been able to feel unlike his brothers and he felt a sudden flow of energy. Their bond had matured. She let him in, let him try and console her deep loss and share the depth of his own loss.
Gabby felt the bond solidify and the small joy in that almost made her feel guilty because there should be no joy while her sister's body burned. Her eyes fell on Mikey. She knew the greatness of his loss. He and Gracie had spent more time together in the last almost eight months than she and her sister had. He had been with her every day, had loved her as a sister and a best friend and now she was gone. She reached for him as Leo had done to her. He drew a ragged breath as he allowed her to see inside of him and as he felt the shared grief, a sharp burst of energy solidified their bonds and once Mikey's bond had sealed with Gabby, Raph's neck went tight with pain as his brothers bonds to him suddenly set into place. Gabby had been the key somehow. Mikey crumpled to his knees as his grief finally found a way out. The girls piled in around him and the guys comforted him through their bonds. When Mikey's tears finally ceased and the fire had burned much lower, Gabby stood and faced her pack.
"Gracie's dying request to me was that I live. That I mate and have babies and grow the pack. She told me to live! Aiden is still alive, the coward. He ran as soon as I collapsed all bonds and broke his power." Gabby glimpsed the three wolves in the tree line. She would recognize them anywhere. The Triplets were waiting. "I can't do what she asked until he's dead." Her eyes went hard. "Im going hunting."
Authors note: I know this was a short chapter but I couldn't wait, not after the emotional mess I went through to get it to this point. Anyone else as upset as I am?